What does real courage look like in project management? In this piece, Simone Sullivan argues that knowing when to stop is as vital as knowing how to ship, and offers a practical guide to spotting project management red flags, resisting sunk-cost traps, and ending a project on a good note.

If you heard or thought these phrases whilst managing a particularly difficult project,  you are not alone. In project management, persistence is usually praised. Shipping is the metric often measured. But true leadership isn’t blind stamina or delivering despite all challenges. Sometimes the bravest move is the one that frees up time, talent, and money. Stopping isn’t failure; it’s strategic courage.

Let’s explore how to identify the red flags (when some projects are simply not worth saving — and why).

The Sunk Cost Bias

So, why do we hold on to sinking projects? A major culprit is the sunk cost fallacy— our tendency to keep investing time, money, or effort simply because we’ve already spent so much, even as returns diminish. You see it in everyday life (sitting through a bad movie because you bought the ticket) and at work (adding “one more quarter” to a faltering rollout to justify the spend).

There are three potential psychological factors influencing this decision too.

1. Loss aversion, which is where we tend to feel losses more acutely than gains, so we do anything to avoid the feeling of loss.
2. Framing effect, where “quitting” is seen as a negative, and so abandoning projects feels like a failure.
3. Commitment bias, where once we’ve made the decision to go ahead with a project, we become tied to the decision, making it harder to pull out.

So how can we spot these patterns before it’s too late?

The Five Project Red Flags

Alignment drift (aka scope creep)

The project or initiative no longer maps cleanly to the problem it set out to solve, or the scope has expanded beyond the original outcomes.
How to spot: Updates begin to feel like special pleading to stay on the roadmap; stakeholders ask, “Remind me why we’re doing this?”

How to solve: Re-test and re-assess the project against top strategic goals. Revisit the objectives it set to solve and remove if they no longer align.

Diminishing ROI

When the project is no longer delivering the value that was promised.
How to spot: Each new item delivers smaller increments of value; adoption is low.

How to solve: Shift from sunk costs to a forward view: “If this were a new proposal today, would we fund it at this cost for this impact?” If not, stop or scale down.

Risk exposure

When the risks (compliance, data, safety etc.) begin to outweigh the benefits and dominate focus.

How to spot: Spending more time on documentation and justification than the project itself.

How to solve: Set clear parameters for what success looks like and use these as your north star. If the risk exceeds these, reassess.

Stakeholder fatigue

Belief and engagement from key stakeholders decline, and former champions no longer show support.

How to spot: Decision meetings get shorter, attendance thinner, actions slower.

How to solve: Restore confidence through transparency and clear updates.

Team burnout

Exhausted teams make expensive mistakes and lose future capacity.

How to spot: Quality dips, sick days rise, retrospectives turn quiet, and your top performers request transfers.

How to solve: Pause and reduce scope — or close entirely. Protecting people protects your portfolio.

The Art of Ending

Knowing how to stop is just as important as knowing when. If you’ve tried to salvage the project, spotted the red flags early, but still can’t ship — what’s next?

• Be clear, honest, and transparent: what has been achieved to date and why it should stop.
• Celebrate contributions, redeploy talent to high-energy work, and offer recovery time to burned-out teams.
• Preserve the important assets; keep what was useful and archive the rest.
• Close contracts cleanly and maintain good relationships with stakeholders.
• Most importantly, learn the lesson. Run a retrospective focused on decisions, missed signals, and leading indicators you’ll track next time.

Finishing strong when things haven’t gone to plan is difficult but essential. Ending well isn’t quitting; it’s making room for the win.